Super activist Rick Hershey
writes: I handed out 875 booklets most to kids in this
unforecasted bitter cold weather for Acquire the Fire at Kemper
Arena this evening. After straightened out the First
Amendment at this venue last year, the same police sergeant
stopped me again this year. Fortunately, it was not until I
was almost done anyway.

Roman Rupowski writes that he and
fellow activists have distributed thousands of CVA booklets
(Polish Edition) in POLAND last year. These booklets were printed
by arrangement with the CVA in March 2009.

I created for Christians interested in
eating vegan or vegetarian for Lent. As a follower of Jesus and
vegan, I know these worlds are usually far apart, and I'm grateful
for a chance to bring them together.

Here it is: Vegan for Lent: A Guide to 40 Days of Plant Based
Eatinghttp://joytienzo.com/?p=745

It has 60+ recipes,
daily scripture meditations, and information on eating out. Anyone can
download it easily, free from cost or obligation. I hope you find it
useful!

The Gospel According to
John begins, “In the beginning was the Word [Greek: logos], and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God…” What is the logos?

Ancient sources use logos in a variety of ways, including to denote
“word” or “speech.” The context of the writer of John’s Gospel
suggests to me that this writer used logos in the sense that the Greek
philosopher Heraclitus (ca. 535-475 BCE) used it. For Heraclitus,
logos was a general concept – a principle of order and knowledge.
Therefore, I think the writer of John was asserting that a
logos/general principle has always guided the universe, and this
principle was manifest in Jesus of Nazareth.

Is there evidence
for such a guiding principle? A look at nature, where animals
routinely kill each other, suggests that if there is such a principle,
it is not benign. However, in nature creatures also delight in life
and even showing kindness and compassion for each other. Indeed,
nonhumans will care for friends and even strangers, and sometimes even
members of other species. Similarly, humans manifest both extremes of
cruelty and callousness as well as love and altruism.

Christian scripture and tradition teaches that the logos was made
incarnate in Jesus. To understand the logos from a Christian
perspective, we need to explore the life and teachings of Jesus. Here,
we find a person who repeatedly showed love, compassion, and concern.
He taught that “the greatest commandment” was love, and this accords
with 1 John 4:8, which reads, “He who does not love does not know God;
for God is love.”

I think that belief that there is a logos is
similar to a belief that God exists. We find evidence for both in our
lives and in the world around us, though we are also challenged in our
faith by evidence to the contrary. Ultimately, we have no choice but
organize our lives around principles, whether those principles involve
love on one extreme or narcissistic self-interest on the other, and
whether or not those principles include God or other metaphysical
dimensions. As a person of faith, I choose to try to align my life
with a notion of the logos in which the creator God (however clouded
in mystery God might be) is loving and caring. I think seeing God as
aligned with a single principle is crucial for monotheism, which I
will explore next week.